Wake Me Up When It's All Over
by I'mThatAcroBat
Summary: Peter would never know that the first thing Tony said when he got back was "I lost the kid." No slash
1. Chapter 1

**Warning:**

**-Sad**

**-Kinda spoiler but not even really at all for EG so read at your own risk**

**-Language! But it's Tony...**

**Wake Me Up When It's All Over**

Tony sank down in his chair as though every fiber in him had died and his soul had been left back on that goddam planet. Steve reached out to him but he shoved the soldier away, too ashamed and too afraid to allow his barriers to be broken now after he had worked so hard to build them up.

"Please Tony. Just say something. Anything to let me know you're alright." Steve tried once again to reach out but was denied, and this time he took a step back and stayed there, patient and waiting.

"I lost the kid."

Tony's eyes were red and dry as he stared down a man he once called his friend. No grief was present, but that's how Steve knew exactly what Tony was thinking. His heart shattered into a million pieces at the confession, but he stayed where he was, choosing instead to reach the hero with his words.

"We all lost someone Tony...I know he meant a lot to you but- "

Steve nearly jumped as a tight fist slammed against the hard wood table, the sound breaking the heavy silence that had just previously choked the room's occupants.

Something pressed impossibly heavy onto Tony's chest but he was unable to relieve the pain. His breathing strained, he replied, "That kid meant _everything_to me!" The super soldier's eyes grew wide, but he watched Tony carefully, silently, waiting for him to continue, and after a few moments, he did.

"I lost my _son _only days ago and you want to try and _goddam relate to me?_"

Tony stood then, too hurt and too damn raw to do anything else but throw that hurt back at someone else.

"I lost my family Rogers." Tony collapsed against the west wall with eyes closed and a hand to his temples, tired anger running through him as he delivered the final blow.

"You can't relate, Steve, because you didn't have any fucking family to lose."

A deafening silence then, neither man daring to breathe, and in that moment Tony knew the damage he had just caused, and the friendship- possibly his only remaining one- he ruined. And Steve- kind, honest and sensitive Steve- just gave Tony a small, defeated smile of grace, and walked out of the automatic glass doors without a rebuke or look of hate.

And when it was all over, Tony sat back down in his chair, alone for good this time, and cried.

—

**Hey guys so super short IW aftermath / EG fic featuring our favorite duo. Sorry for the language, but it seemed fitting for the situation and character. This won't be continued unless you guys just like, freak or something. So. Let me know by reviewing please you don't even know how good those make me feel. Did you guys like EG? Hate it? Let me know!**

**Love y'all! **

**-me**


	2. Chapter 2

**SPOILERS. OMG SPOILERS LIKE YA NEVER SEEN BEFORE. PLEASE. DO. NOT. READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE.**

**DON'T DO IT**

**LAST CHANCE**

**OKAY I TRIED**

**Life Will Pass Me By If I Don't Open My Eyes**

"-an you hear me? It's Peter." Something clicked at the name and Tony's consciousness forced itself back to the living world. His eyes found the person in front of them and Tony did his best to keep them there.

"We won, Mister Stark. We won Mister Stark."

Peter's ragged breaths came in quick bursts, but it wasn't from a lack of air. No, in fact too much of the stuff was filling his lungs, choking him, cutting him off and making him sound funny even to his own ears. Someone else's blood dripped from his hair and onto his face, but Peter didn't even notice.

"We won. You did it sir, you did it." Tony trembled but focused intently on his kid, his world, to try and communicate that it would be alright. That everything would turn out okay because Peter was back. He was back. And Tony was so very tired.

But the kid wouldn't shut up for even a second. He kept repeating what Tony already knew, and it registered somewhere in the older man's mind that when Peter got sad or sick or scared he tended to talk to help relieve the pain- even unknowingly.

So Tony allowed him to continue, allowed his kid talk as long as he so goddamn wished because Tony would do anything for his kid- anything- and nothing in world would stand in the way of that child doing whatever he wanted to do for as long as he lived. Ever.

"I'm sorry, Tony." Peter's voice cracked on the last word he would ever speak to his mentor, his best friend, his father. The irony wasn't missed that it was these very words Peter had spoken moments before he himself had gone from this world, and Tony's happiness left with him.

The thought wasn't allowed to linger long, though, as a hand was suddenly on his shoulder, gently signaling that it was someone else's turn now. Selfishly, Peter wanted it to be his face Tony saw last. That maybe- just maybe- if Peter stayed with him than his dad wouldn't die. And he could hold Peter until he himself had grown up. But they both knew that Tony would never watch him graduate high school, never see him off to college, and never sit in the front row of his wedding.

Peter collapsed at the feet of his hero and sobbed, Tony watching helplessly, wishing with everything he had that he could move to comfort the kid and that he would stay there until his last breath. But in a moment his child was gone, and Pepper took his place and Tony remembered. He remembered.

Morgan.

Pepper seemed to realize that he knew as she didn't share the same expression that tore his kid apart just seconds ago. She smiled gently at him instead, understanding something he couldn't yet comprehend.

"Hey", she spoke softly as she ran her thin fingers over his reactor. She stopped smiling suddenly and spoke, never once taking her eyes off of his.

"Friday." Her voice was now steady and strong and the AI responded, saying something he couldn't quite make out. It appeared to reassure her though as her face contorted once again, the bittersweet smile reaching her eyes.

"Tony."

"Look at me." His head tilted slightly in her direction and even though Tony couldn't speak, Pepper knew he was listening. He always listened when it mattered most.

"We're going to be okay." Even before she said the words, Tony knew that she wasn't talking about him- they all knew he wouldn't be leaving that battlefield alive- but about her and his beautiful, beautiful daughter.

Pepper glanced down but back up before she spoke again, the sad but genuine smile still in place. Her words were gentle, but strong. Final. "You can rest now."

He seemed to understand and Pepper watched as the light in his eyes begin to deplete, knowing it wouldn't be long now until he was finally at peace. Her smile began to collapse until she couldn't hold her tears back anymore. It seemed almost poetic that just as her tear hit the hard earth, Tony's heart stopped, and the faint blue light from his repulser went quietly off.

Steve watched from a short distance away, no tears left to give for his fallen brother. He watched as Pepper kissed Tony's cheek and he watched as she sobbed against his shoulder, Peter himself unable to keep it together as he witnessed his father's passing.

He came forward then, and knelt down near Tony's body. Steve- as gentle as he's ever done anything in his life- ran his fingers across the hero's eyelids and closed them solemnly. There was a distantly familiar noise that Steve couldn't quite place and he looked back, Peter was gone. Steve sighed but didn't bother asking where he had gone, knowing no one would know until the teen wanted them to.

The super soldier knelt silently next to Pepper and helped her stand. Steve understood her grief as he picked her gently up, carrying her away from Tony and to Thor who glanced back once more towards the lifeless body and then away for good, little Pepper held tightly in his arms.

Steve thanked him with a nod and returned to his friend, moving him carefully from the wall- as though not to hurt him- and into his arms.

The soldier didn't even look up as he gave his command, knowing Peter would hear from wherever he was.

"Let's go kid."

Moments after footsteps sounded behind him, but Steve didn't turn around, keeping his focus straight ahead of him, pretending he wasn't holding his brother's body in his burned and charred arms. Pretending none of this happened at all and wishing- not for the first time- that he was back in his own time.

Something strange ran through him then and he stopped moving entirely for a moment, the footsteps behind him stopping also. Steve searched for the purpose of it, but not being able to identify the foreign feeling, he brushed it off as nothing and continued walking.

It would be several hours before Steve even had a real chance of evaluating that moment, that feeling that had yet to leave him ever since that one tiny thought. And it would be another several days until Steve knew what he had to do. As he stared down at Bucky, Steve knew he understood the same as Steve understood why Bucky couldn't follow him. They had both found where they belong.

As Bruce started up the machine, Steve smiled to himself, taking one last look around at his surroundings before a welcomed pop sounded and suddenly Steve was somewhere else entirely.

He stood there, taking it all in, smelling that horrible, wonderful smell that he only knew from his memories and-

"Steve?"

The soldier stopped in his tracks at the all too familiar voice and turned around slowly. Thick, curly brown hair and a smile that could rival the sun shone brightly at him andany doubts Steve had vanished in a single second.

He was home.

**Hey guys thank you so much for your feedback, responses, and overall love on that first part. This will be the second and last part to this story but more will be written as a separate fic later. Let me know if this one was better or worse than the first and what you guys would like me to write about next. Please review!**

**-me ;)**


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